In the olden days, actors were expected to be all-around performers. Singing and dancing were requirements that even those we think of as heavy dramatic actors were forced to learn. Katharine Hepburn may not have been the greatest singer ever but sing she did, and dance. Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire may not have been the best actors but dancing and singing they excelled at. Audrey Hepburn’s voice, although pleasant enough, never reached the brilliance of her acting. But the lines were blurred, no one was pigeonholed, and in some cases, this combination of talent stands out to this day: Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne were all incredible performers who excelled at both crafts.

In the 1960s, being able to sing and act was still an important combination, especially for musicals like Funny Girl, which, of course, turned Barbra Streisand into a world-famous star. Elvis Presley was expected to act and did so in a slew of films. And even if one could never get past him being Elvis, he was entertaining to watch.

The big divide began in the 1970s with the rise of genre films. There were singers and there were actors and hardly anyone did both. In the 1980s, some actors started branching out – and in most cases were ridiculed in the media. When Bruce Willis, building on his success with the TV series Moonlighting, reinvented himself as Bruno on an album called “The Return of Bruno”, the press made fun of him. Descriptions of the album included words like “appealing kitsch”. It was more of “a testament to the excesses of Reagan era celebrity and baby-boomer nostalgia than as a piece of music.” Bad reviews didn’t deter the Bruce who made a few more albums, because why not? He always clearly enjoyed it.

Don Johnson went another route. He began dating one of the world’s best singers, Barbra Streisand. Madly in love with him, she asked him to do a duet with her, for an album.

“Barbra, when she asked me to do the duet with her, I was terrified. And I said I don’t think I could do that. And she said, “of course you can, you have a great voice, I heard both your albums.” She had the studio organized so that there was a window between us singing. And I think that I kept cracking up because I’m standing there and looking through the window and there’s Barbra Streisand singing to me.”

Johnson was a musician before he became an actor: “I wrote songs for the Allman Brothers Band, and I wrote a couple of songs with Stephen Stills and I would go out and tour with them. And this was pre-Miami Vice”.

Another crossover-success story is Eddie Murphy who was making as much music as he was movies in the ‘80s. “Party All the Time” and “Put Your Mouth on Me” were certified hits, and later his songs on the Shrek soundtrack also made it into the charts.

It’s not that widely known that Ricky Gervais and a friend formed the British New Wave group Seona Dancing. They released two unsuccessful singles before calling it quits, although one of them, “More to Lose,” became a huge sensation in the Philippines.

For some, who chose acting as their main profession, music was always in their blood. In the 1990s, comedy star Maya Rudolph was the keyboardist and backup singer in a ’90s band called The Rentals. It helps when you come from a musician family – she is the daughter of soul singer Minnie Riperton and composer-producer Richard Rudolph.

Another actor who has a clear love for music is Kevin Bacon who, in 1995 formed a band with his brother Michael, The Bacon Brothers, and has since released six albums. Even though their genre has been described as country soul, he says that “Pretty much everything in popular music is an influence, all the ‘60s rock and all the soul music of Motown and the Philly sound. Country, I didn’t know all that well but later on in life, I started listening to a lot of it.”

Keanu Reeves spent 11 years playing guitar for the alternative rock band Dogstar, which was mostly for fun, not for making big money, as he told GQ, laughing: “I guess it would have helped if our band was better.”

Juliette Lewis has toured the world and has a big following as a rock star. She first fronted the rock band Juliette Lewis and the Licks from 2003 to 2009, and subsequently formed another, The New Romantiques, and released her album “Terra Incognita”. “I was always a musician who then started acting first.”

Since then, Zooey Deschanel has branched out into music and to great reviews and success. As one half of the folk-rock duo She & Him, which features her on vocals, piano, and ukulele, released their first album, Volume One, in 2008, which was called “a remarkably self-assured first album” In the press. She has continued to put out hit albums ever since.

Zoe Kravitz’s genes come out full force when she performs with her band Lolawolf. As she told Rollin Stone: “With acting, I get employed. It’s a job. I have to be places at certain times. Lolawolf is what I choose to do with my free time”

Golden Globe winner Jamie Foxx built on his success playing Ray Charles with five R&B albums. And Jeff Bridges’ passion for music may well surpass his love of acting. He is best when he can do both as he did in Crazy Heart in 2009. Nine years earlier he had already released his first album, “Be Here Soon,” and a self-titled record followed in 2011 after he signed with Blue Note Records, which in itself is a feat – the legendary jazz label only signs big talent. Bridges discovered the guitar early on, in the 1960s, and compares music with movies: “I haven’t performed live as an actor in front of an audience for a long time. The way you feed off an audience’s energy is something that you don’t get from making a movie.”

Another hugely successful actor/rock musician is Jack Black, who gives concerts and has fans all over the world with his band Tenacious D. He cites “Meat Loaf, Dio and Dave Grohl” as his inspirations. The Tenacious D shows are always sold out and the albums also sell well compared to some of his colleagues. Not that many people bought Scarlett Johansson’s Tom Waits cover album or her 2015 single “Candy”.

Russell Crowe’s band Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts is still an acquired taste. (Russell used to go by the musical stage name Russ le Roq.)

Robert Downey Jr. fared much better in 2004 with his album “The Futurist”, after having his song “broken” on his film Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: he proved himself a talented musician with reviews praising “his interpretations of other musicians’ work, such as “Your Move” by Yes and Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile” and calling the album “unpredictably moving as the best of Downey’s film work.”

Another success story is Idris Elba, who even owns a record label, 7Wallace Music and has played Coachella.

And then there are the talented singers who more than proved that they can act, among them Beyoncé, Harry Connick Jr., along with Jon Bon Jovi and Jennifer Hudson, both Golden Globe winners. Hudson’s highly anticipated turn as the soul queen,  Aretha Franklin in the movie Respect, which was made with the stamp of approval of the late singer – will be released this fall. As Hudson told the HFPA on the film set: “Aretha and I spoke about it for a long time. I still have moments where I’m in shock, I’m really playing Aretha Franklin. She’s an icon to the world, including for myself. So, it’s something that I just want to pay her the utmost respect and by the time people see this film I want them to have a newfound respect for her.”